Google Adds IT Admin Features for Chrome Browser

Google has beefed up the administration and management controls that IT staff have over their users' Chrome browsers.

Google has beefed up the administration and management controls that IT staff have over their users' Chrome browsers.

Google has added the ability for IT departments to apply the workplace configuration of Chrome browsers to Chrome browsers installed on employees' home computers.

That way, users working on their home computers can have access to their work Web apps, custom themes and app store by logging into Chrome with their Google Apps for Business or Google Apps for Education accounts, the company said Tuesday.

"With cloud-based management, IT administrators can customize more than 100 Chrome policies and preferences for their employees from the Google Admin panel," wrote Cyrus Mistry, senior product manager, Chrome for Business & Education, in a blog post.

Google also announced a new Chrome extension called Legacy Browser Support that lets IT administrators configure the browser so that it will launch an older browser for certain sites and Web applications that run better with a "legacy" browser.

"IT managers simply define which sites should launch from Chrome into an alternate browser, and then set this Chrome policy for all employees," Mistry wrote.